Next year will be a breakout year for copper, said Ellis Martin,...

Next year will be a breakout year for copper, said Ellis Martin, founder of The Ellis Martin Report.

In late-November Martin was interviewed at Resourcing Tomorrow held in London, UK.

"I think we're going to see something we've never really seen before at least in a sustained fashion. We're going to see a rise in the copper market," said Martin, predicting that the red metal could go as high as $5 a pound next year. "It's going to be very good for the equities and I believe you'll see more of a consolidation between the majors, the mid- tiers and the juniors."

Martin cited Rio Tinto's (NYSE:RIO) recent CAD$6 million investment into Western Copper & Gold's (TSX:WRN) Casino project as an example. The greenfield copper and gold property, located in the Canadian Yukon territory, is at the feasibility stage.

Regarding the seeming lack of interest by large copper miners in smaller companies, Martin said the former are waiting to time it right.

"They've had their eyeballs on everything for a long time, they've never taken their eyes off… they'd like to know that there's no more downside, and some signal that this energy transition is going to hold. People will continue to build and manufacture batteries and electric vehicles, and also there's some sort of turn in the general economy of the world which we haven't really seen yet."

In this bear market, Martin urged resource investors to load up on cheap stocks.

"This is the time where you can hit that five-bagger, 10-bagger, and maybe 20-bagger. If you're patient, you can wait one to two to five years. Now's the time," he said.